What Do You Need to Run Your Own Event?

Planning an event is a mammoth task. Any mis-steps or forgotten things can lead to repercussions that make the difference between your event being a fabulous success or fizzling into nothing. For any event, irrespective of its size, having a strategic checklist and running order in the months, weeks and days running up to the event is essential. With this in mind, here is a basic five-point guide to help in running your own event. 

The Purpose of Your Event

You will be surprised at the number of organisers that don’t have a purpose behind their event. This is not the same as having a great idea – this is about asking yourself why you are doing it. Is it a celebration to launch a new facility or to raise awareness over a local issue? If you have a defined objective, you will find marketing and promotion your event much easier and bring in the right people.

Who are your target audience?

Who would enjoy the event? Why would you invite them? Is it something that is suitable for a select number of people or is it open to the public? Like all products, understanding what your event is and who would be interested is very important.

Marketing

Event organisers in the past have printed a few posters and assumed that this would be enough to attract the masses to their event.

Unfortunately, a few posters here and there are no longer sufficient to engage or connect with your audience. Marketing your event will fall into two categories: online and offline event marketing. 

• Offline marketing – from handing out flyers to adverts in local papers, posters and so on advertising the event and other practical details is essential. Don’t make the mistake of starting too early but have a strategic campaign outline the ‘when and where’ of offline marketing.
• Online marketing – this is a combination of emails, newsletter and harnessing the power of social media to create a buzz around your event that attracts the people who will enjoy it. 

Overall Logistics and Practicalities

Do NOT underestimate how much time and effort goes into sweating the small stuff. Now you have your event in the public eye, you need to meet expectations and this means thinking of EVERYTHING!

Here are just a few ideas;

• Traffic flow and car parking – if your event is responsible for the flow of traffic in and out of your event, you will need to give serious thought to who and how this will be managed. We are all too familiar with event goers’ complaints over waiting in long queues to enter and exit and event, as well as cars being lost to muddy swamps that were fields.
• Food and drink – making sure you have plenty of options for people to buy refreshments (or provide them) is an essential step in event planning. If possible, pass this mantel to food stalls and retailers who will have all the necessary food safety training and insurances (always check!).
• Toilets – any event needs to provide ample and accessible toileting facilities. Toilet Hire In London is a great way of ensuring that all your event delegates have access to clean and hygienic toilets – and plenty of them too. 

Engaging your Event Goers

The reason why some events fall flat is although the pre-planning has been done effectively, the vent planners have forgotten one thing: engaging their audience once they arrive at the event.
Depending on your event, there are various ideas to tap into:

• Engage a high-profile speaker
• Offers tours of the facilities
• Organise games for kids and/or adults
• Use online event updates as part of engaging with your audience too

There are other factors you need to consider when event planning, such as taking time to review your event so you can learn from anything that could be improved for next time. But, with detailed pre-planning, your event is sure to be successful.